This display considers the history and architecture of Bedford Square. The materials shown in the two horizontal cases reflect how Bedford Square has featured in the literature on Georgian architecture and town planning. The selection highlights the role of the Building Act and the values associated with the ostensibly standardised kinds of townhouse which came after it. But while celebrating the design, the scrutiny of architectural historians has also exposed Bedford Square’s symmetry as less complete than it appears—the standard of building and detailing not as high or uniform as claimed. Some historians have also documented the heady combination of aristocratic power and capitalist speculation which made the development possible.
